The Ties That Bind Part 2

You probably read my previous post and thought, “Okay, Jenny. So what?” You’re right. Anybody can say, “no worries, blah blah blah.” What we need now are some effective ways to handle stress, and the things life throws at us that, well, throw us off. Spin us off kilter. Put a kink in our chain. Pull us out of orbit. Wow, there are a ton of metaphors for what happens when things go wrong.

My parents have always stressed the importance and necessity of exercise to me. It wasn’t until I really started having a ton of hard classes at school, a million finals to think about, and everything else that’s going on in my life that I started to see what they meant. Yes, exercise can be a drudgery. It’s terrible, I don’t think anybody would deny that. But it reaps many more rewards than the effort it takes. You see, cardiovascular exercise sets off endorphins in the brain that make us happy. Exercise is like eating a chocolate bar. But with WAY less calories. And for that matter, it helps you burn calories! It even increases memory and brain function. Your dove chocolate bar can’t do that, people.

Every day after school, I talk a brisk walk around my neighborhood. It’s about a mile and a quarter track, but in the balmy Alabama heat that’s no small accomplishment. Sometimes when I get home from school, I just feel like dropping like a fly. But every time I make it around the block, as soon as I sit down to do my homework, I am on a buzz. An exercise buzz. A stress-free, worry free, who cares about all the ties that bind buzz. There’s absolutely nothing like it folks.

I think my main problem, even knowing that God is in control, and that His plans are the best plans, no matter how hard I try to foil them, is that I can’t understand the way His quilt squares are patched together. It’s pure arrogance that I think my quilt should look a certain way, when I can’t even see the full design He has concocted.

I was listening only last night to a beautiful song by one of my favorite bands, Until June. Here are part of the lyrics:

The midnight air, it blows between my fingertips so cold

As I walk back, inside;

It’s hard for me to understand how You could die for me

I fall short, sometimes

If only I could see the way You do.

The song repeats the last line over and over and over, until you start to feel the peace and mystery of it wash over you. We can’t see the way God does. No matter how clear my mind is from stress, I’ll never be able to make the true, perfect, and right decision without Him. But He also doesn’t want me to be burdened or trialed beyond what I can bear. Which is why I think He has given us nifty things like exercise. He understands us better than we understand ourselves.

Jenny Combs

Team 2 Servant Scholars

Grade 12

Alabaster, AL